Donna’s 2016 Year List: Florida, India, and Then–Home

My first sight of Greater Scaup for 2016 was in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India, not in World’s Fair Marina, Queens, N.Y., twelve minutes away. Granted, Greater Scaup is not a usual bird for Assam; Rockjumper guide David Erterius has a knack for finding the avian rarity. But, add to that the fact that I also saw Pin-tailed Duck and Green Winged Teal (o.k., the subspecies Common Teal) in India before seeing them in the U.S., and that I had 11 New World warblers on my year list by the end of January (thank you, Florida) and you get the idea. A lot of birding done in the first few months of 2016, little of it at home.

So, the good news is that I am at 524 countable birds for 2016 as I write this. The unsettling (not bad, just a little poke in the balloon) news is–what do I do for the rest of the year? Bird on, and enjoy the birds! Look for behavior. Improve my photography skills. Maybe, just maybe, add some birds to my ABA list. These are my goals for 2016. (Should I change that to “birding goals”? Are there goals outside of one’s birding list?)

524–already 10 more than my 2015 total, 514. A trip to India will do that. But, when I browse through my 2015 list and look at my photos, I feel very happy. Some good Life Birds (Key West Quail-Dove on New Year’s Day with Roxanne and other Florida friends, Honduran Emerald on my Honduras jaunt with NJ Audubon, LeConte’s Thrasher near Piute Ponds, pointed out by Catherine and Luke, and Yellow-billed Magpie with my mom, sorta, are four that stand out), some good ABA Birds (Wandering Tattler, finally!), and plain old birding experiences that simply made life worthwhile.

As in years past, life birds are bolded, ABA birds are astericked, and non-countable birds (exotics) are listed separately. Photos may not be of the first bird of the year, but were taken of the species in 2016.

Non-countable Birds:

Having been attached to books all her life, Donna Lynn Schulman is thrilled to be engaged in a passion that requires fealty to an information artifact called a “field guide.” Donna divides her birding time between Queens, New York, where she grew up, and central New Jersey, where she is on the adjunct faculty of a very large public university. Donna was a Library Journal book reviewer for 15 years, reviewing over 100 titles, and has also reviewed labor relations books and contributed articles on labor relations research to specialized journals and monographs. She wrote her first birding book reviews for the Queens County Bird Club’s News & Notes, which she formerly edited, and has also reviewed for the American Birding Associations' Birding magazine. Donna was recently pleased to talk about the top birding books of 2017 with Nate Swick for the ABA December podcast. When she is not birding or working on her nature photography, Donna travels to Florida, where she attempts to turn her young nephews into birders (so far, they are fisherman who send her photos of birds), to Los Angeles to visit her writer daughter and son-in-law, or somewhere wonderfully new and birdy. She also contemplates someday writing an article for her blog, Queensgirl.

hahahaha. I think I’m just about done, Mike. I could chase a few birds (Cackling Goose and Ash-throated Flycatcher come to mind), but I don’t like chasing just for the tick. And, I never seem to get the bird when I do that. Going to India in the beginning of the year was a good way to get started.